KYCY-AM first station to convert to all-podcast format / Roster of amateur audio programs to replace talk shows

Benny Evangelista, Chronicle Staff Writer

Published
4:00 am PDT, Thursday, April 28, 2005

San Francisco's KYCY-AM plans to convert to an all-podcast format, the first over-the-air radio station to embrace the Internet's nascent but expanding do-it-yourself broadcasting phenomenon.

Radio industry powerhouse Infinity Broadcasting Corp., which owns KYCY, announced Wednesday that it will dump the station's lineup of syndicated talk shows on May 16 and replace it with amateur podcasts, homespun audio programs posted on the Web for downloading into iPods or similar portable digital audio players.

Infinity will promote the station, at 1550 AM, as "KYouRadio" and stream the podcasts on the Web.

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The move raised eyebrows within the radio industry because Infinity is using an AM station in one of the country's largest markets to experiment with podcasting, which has only been in existence since summer. Other stations have podcast their programs on the Web, but none have turned their format over to podcasters.

Podcasting has become such a fast-growing grassroots movement that Forrester Research recently projected it will reach 12.3 million households by 2010, making it yet another threat to tear audiences away from traditional radio.

"There is a profound shift under way in the way we use technology that allows everyone to have a voice," Joel Hollander, Infinity chairman and chief executive, said in a press release. The new format "harnesses that power by serving our listeners with content developed by them for them."

Whether the experiment improves ratings depends on what kind of podcasts KYCY chooses to air, said Dave Van Dyke, president of radio industry consulting firm Bridge Ratings LLC of Glendale (Los Angeles County).

But the station's ratings are so low Infinity might as well "think outside the box," he said. KYCY didn't even show up in Arbitron's January-to- March local ratings period list for the local market, he said.

"There is this hunger for radio content that is different," he said. "Broadcasters are beginning to understand the options available to the 16-to- 30-year-old listener. Terrestrial radio has to do something to prevent that younger generation from completely abandoning traditional radio."

KYCY, which first went on the air as KSMO in 1947, created a Web site, www.kyouradio.com, asking podcasters to submit programs for on-air consideration.

Part of the appeal of podcasting is that content is unfiltered and unregulated, giving rise to podcasts based on ribald or sensitive topics not allowed on regular broadcast stations. KYCY will screen podcasts to conform with Federal Communications Commission regulations, said David Goodman, Infinity's president of marketing.

However, Goodman said the station hopes to uncover fresh programming and new talent.

"We think it's important to embrace creativity in all forms," Goodman said. "We felt if there was a right market, it was San Francisco, which not only has a history of technology but of freedom of speech."